Brad Jones was our best ILB last season and he improved quite a bit. He should be on this team over AJ Hawk. Crabtree may not have been great, but he is a very good blocker and he had a knack for the big play last season. Walden again isn't a great player, but he was serviceable and was a player who managed to stay healthy.

Brad Jones was our best ILB last season and he improved quite a bit. He should be on this team over AJ Hawk. Crabtree may not have been great, but he is a very good blocker and he had a knack for the big play last season. Walden again isn't a great player, but he was serviceable and was a player who managed to stay healthy.

Crabtree was one of my favorite players... Don't ask me why I just loved that weird dude.

I understand team turnover and the parity caused by the salary cap but that doesn't explain all of our losses since 2010.

Collins was a freak accident that lost us a truly elite player who is only turning 30 this year. Doesn't that just hurt to think about? He was a top 3 safety still rounding into his prime. It hurts me to think about.

Jenkins was a mistake. We thought he was going to get a huge contract and clearly our front office misplayed it; the contract he signed with the Eagles was pretty modest for his talent. Think of it this way; we effectively chose to keep A.J. Hawk instead of Jenkins.... and we payed more to do it. Youch. Sure, Hawk had a decent year during our Super Bowl run, some would say the best year he's had with us, but he certainly wasn't more than above average.

Where would we have been in 2011 with that offense and Collins and Jenkins on D? Would the Giants have handled us in the playoffs? Not so easily, for sure. We wouldn't have given up a hail mary before half, not with Jenkins and Collins. It's a meaningless exercise to imagine that but fun nonetheless.

Now, I don't blame us for losses like Woodson or Driver or even Jennings. Woodson and Driver got old. That happens. We made the right moves there (if anything, keeping Driver too long.)

Jennings is a tougher one. Would our offense be better with him? Yup. Is he a true #1 WR? Sorry, but I don't really think so. In his prime I could debate it and at 29 with declining health, no way. I can remember quite a few negative plays with Jennings over the last few years and frankly, his game is predicated around quickness and we saw with Driver what happens when that fades. Would I have loved to have him back? Yes. But it's pretty telling when only one team in the league offered him over $6 mil a year and when that team offers 9 mil? Right move to say good bye. Cobb has the chance to be a more explosive Jennings and frankly, he would have suffered if we hadn't moved on.

Collins freak injury probably bugs me the most. I remember watching him play and he was so natural to the ball and had great recovery. Ie.. in the Super Bowl on his pick six, I remember watching the replay and feeling 100% confident had Big Ben gotten that ball deep Collins still would have picked it off.

Jenkins is a close second and even more frustrating because it was simply a screw up by our front office. Collins was a freak accident, we dropped the ball on Jenkins. Pay $5 mil a year to an elite player, guys. Come on.

But the past is the past, hopefully we strike gold in the draft this year. Rodgers has 6 or 7 more elite years, knock on wood, and I'd like to win 2 or 3 super bowls in that time frame!

It IS a shame about Collins. The two guys drafted in the second round that year both had sad endings to their careers. I always thought Terrence Murphy would have developed into a solid player too.

Murphy would have become a good-great one. You're right.
We've had bullschit bad luck with injuries.... it's almost like Farve's good health luck for all those years sucked the good luck from the whole franchise.

There's conflicting information as far as Harris being a free agent, but I don't believe he is one.

Harris is not a free agent. McCarthy's pressers clearly state Harris will be half of the rushing attack this year. I'll take his word over random internet reports, plus I haven't seen him listed as a free agent for us on any of the many legit sites I've checked our info on.

Jennings took out full page ads to thank the fans. Classy move...anybody want to take back your "he's dead to me" statements?

No I don't. This was just damage-control. He was told to do this to sooth the fans. In fact, I tried to tweet this to him the night of the signing because I wanted it to NOT become a big thing.... which it did.

You can't jump to that team and not lose a bunch of fans. Especially when Thompson had tried hard to sign him, and had offered market value a few times.

Plus all the schit his sister said was a (partial) reflection of him and the things he said.
He wanted to go to Miami, and had he, it would have been better.
But amazingly, it once again is the Vikings. Why them? THey always want our guys.

Brad Jones last year was better then not only Smith, but also Hawk and Bishop. He actually covered people and has great athleticism.

I've always liked Jones; I remember when we made the 3-4 switch and there was that first year where he looked like a legit option as a 3-4 OLB. He's got speed and cover ability, just always been a little on the lighter side and needs to work on his tackling.

Also, he's only 26. He's TURNING 27 this year. Considering he graded out as one of the top 10 ILBs last year and is still really learning a new position (or at least, actually focused; no more ping-ponging him around from ROLB to LOLB to solely dime backer to blah blah blah) he really could turn into something great for us.

Desmond Bishop, Brad Jones, A.J. Hawk and D.J. Smith is a lot of depth at that ILB position; especially considering Manning is still a project guy many were really high on from the draft last year.

Most importantly, that frees us up to pursure either the best pass-rusher that drops to us, a safety if we decide McMillian isn't the guy, or even a luxury pick like Eifert or a RB in the first and second rounds.

I really worry about when and how they will be when they pass the rehab process:

Quote:

McCarthy also hinted that Jones would be re-signed in his answer about Bishop and Smith.

“I know D.J.’s injury is very serious. He’s there every day,” McCarthy said. “And Bishop, I haven’t seen him for a while. He was in town for a checkup. I couldn’t really give you an honest assessment of where ‘Bish’ is at right now.

“I’m concerned on a personal level for their injuries, but our board looks a lot better today..."

Didn't really have a choice at this point. The best TE in the draft will likely be gone by the time we pick and the other options don't look like immediate impact players to me. Our offense would have been in dire straits this year without Finley. I'd still love it if we picked up Eifert but the decision to keep Finley was one that had to be made.

I'm not surprised one bit I never expected he would be cut. Yea it would be nice if he took a paycut but I think he will realise its time to put up or he could be cut and his chance at any significant money in the future would be a lot less.

I wonder what the team's approach with Finley is. He is a player who has routinely underachieved given his skill set and the expectations set forth my coaches and fans alike. Granted he is a player that opponents seemlingly focus their attention on in the red zone, but is he worth a $8.25 million number? I don't think anyone will argue that he is and we currently have three high salary players (Rodgers, Matthews and Raji) who will eat up considerable amount of cap space and we could have used the extra 8 million to front load one of these deals and give us more cap flexibility for the future.

The tight end position has never been the focal point of the offense since McCarthy has been coach, and it's been more of a niche position. To invest so much in a player who causes us as many headches as he does for an opponent, is a poor choice by the front office.